It has become commonplace for those who either listen to electronically provided audio (e.g., audio from a CD player, a radio or a MP3 player), those who simply seek to be acoustically isolated from unwanted or possibly harmful sounds in a given environment, and those engaging in two-way communications to employ personal acoustic devices (i.e., devices structured to be positioned in the vicinity of at least one of a user's ears) to perform these functions. For those who employ headphones or headset forms of personal acoustic devices to listen to electronically provided audio, it has become commonplace for that audio to be provided with at least two audio channels (e.g., stereo audio with left and right channels) to be separately acoustically output with separate earpieces to each ear. Further, recent developments in digital signal processing (DSP) technology have enabled such provision of audio with various forms of surround sound involving multiple audio channels. For those simply seeking to be acoustically isolated from unwanted or possibly harmful sounds, it has become commonplace for acoustic isolation to be achieved through the use of active noise reduction (ANR) techniques based on the acoustic output of anti-noise sounds in addition to passive noise reduction (PNR) techniques based on sound absorbing and/or reflecting materials. Further, it has become commonplace to combine ANR with other audio functions in headphones, headsets, earphones, earbuds, and wireless headsets (also known as “earsets”).
Yet, despite these many advances, issues of user safety and ease of use of many personal acoustic devices remain unresolved. More specifically, controls mounted upon or otherwise connected to a personal acoustic device that are normally operated by a user upon either positioning the personal acoustic device in the vicinity of one or both ears or removing it therefrom (e.g., a power switch) are often undesirably cumbersome to use. The cumbersome nature of controls of a personal acoustic device often arises from the need to minimize the size and weight of such personal acoustic devices by minimizing the physical size of such controls. Also, controls of other devices with which a personal acoustic device interacts are often inconveniently located relative to the personal acoustic device and/or a user. Further, regardless of whether such controls are in some way carried by the personal acoustic device, itself, or by another device with which the personal acoustic device interacts, it is commonplace for users to forget to operate such controls when they do position the acoustic device in the vicinity of one or both ears or remove it therefrom.
Various enhancements in safety and/or ease of use may be realized through the provision of an automated ability to determine the positioning of a personal acoustic device relative to one or both of the user's ears.